Granny says, "Write yer Congressman - tell him ya want some o' dat insider trading information so's you can get rich too...57 members of Congress among wealthy 1%15 Nov.`11 - Fifty-seven members, or roughly 11%, of Congress can count themselves among the top 1% of wealth, with an estimated net worth of $9 million, according to a USA TODAY analysis of personal financial disclosures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

"We are the 99%" has become a rallying cry for protesters at Occupy Wall Street and similar demonstrations across the country, calling attention to the disproportionate wealth controlled by the top 1% of American households. Congress's top 1% include Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. (estimated net worth: $448.1 million); Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas ($380.4 million); Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. ($231.7 million); Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. ($192.7 million); and Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo. ($143.2 million). Stephen Hess, a Brookings Institution fellow and author of America's Political Dynasties, says the super-wealthy in Congress overshadow the fact that Congress "generally reflects the nation's middle class."

"In many cases, the top 10% are self-made and it reflects something that's in the American psyche, too. We're not against people being rich. We just wish we were. But we are particularly attracted to people who made their own riches," Hess says. "Being rich doesn't necessarily mean that they have views that are somehow skewed." Measured by wealth, the cutoff for the top 1% of households is about $9 million, according to New York University economist Edward Wolff, citing the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances. Congress includes 249 millionaires, the data show. The median wealth: $891,506, almost nine times the typical American household.

Measured by income, congressional salaries alone don't put lawmakers in the 1%. Most congressmen and senators make $174,000 a year in salary, and Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, gets $223,500. The top 1% of Americans make at least $350,000 annually, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. The 2010 personal financial disclosures filed by members of Congress reveal their assets and liabilities only in broad ranges. So the Center for Responsive Politics numbers are estimates  the average of the member's lowest and highest possible net worth. Using the minimum and maximum numbers, there are as few as 31 one percenters in Congress, or as many as 88. The actual net worth is often much higher, because the disclosures don't include the value of their primary home.

The bill filed Tuesday by Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown would make it illegal for elected congressional officials, their staffs and executive branch employees to use information about pending bills that's not available to the general public in making investment decisions. It would also forbid them from making such information public for personal gain.
Brown's bill, which he called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK Act, would clarify insider trading regulations that do not clearly identify whether the use of inside government information constitutes insider trading.
"Members of Congress should live under the same laws as everyone else. If they trade on inside knowledge to line their own pockets, they should be punished," Brown said in a statement, without referencing any of the officials named in the report. "Serving the public is a privilege and honor, not an opportunity for personal gain."

After picking through her disclosure forms, it looks a lot less likely that Pelosi was looking for a quick payday. Whats still unresolved, however, are ethical questions about buying and selling shares of companies that will be heavily impacted by legislation before Congress.

Pelosi is implicitly charged with getting improper treatment from Visa during their 2008 IPO, then the largest of all time. The following is Sunday's "60 Minutes "lead in to the segment on Pelosi. The speaker is Peter Schweizer, whose investigation into stock trading on Capitol Hill is featured in the "60 Minutes" report:

"If you were a senator, Steve, and I gave you $10,000 cash, one or both of us is probably gonna go to jail. But if Im a corporate executive and youre a senator, and I give you IPO shares in stock and over the course of one day that stock nets you $100,000, thats completely legal."Did Nancy Pelosi profit from Visa stock purchases? - CSMonitor.com

The bill filed Tuesday by Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown would make it illegal for elected congressional officials, their staffs and executive branch employees to use information about pending bills that's not available to the general public in making investment decisions. It would also forbid them from making such information public for personal gain.
Brown's bill, which he called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK Act, would clarify insider trading regulations that do not clearly identify whether the use of inside government information constitutes insider trading.
"Members of Congress should live under the same laws as everyone else. If they trade on inside knowledge to line their own pockets, they should be punished," Brown said in a statement, without referencing any of the officials named in the report. "Serving the public is a privilege and honor, not an opportunity for personal gain."

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To be really honest..I was flatfooted and shocked by this. Having worked in the financial industry..and having had regulators up my ass about everything..I am seriously amazed nothing like that covers congress.

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